A Spotlight On: Poison Gas in World War I

Although World War I saw the first use of many new military inventions few were as feared or gruesome as the poison gas introduced by Germany in 1915. Previously in 1914, several non-lethal gas weapons had been employed by both the Allies and Germany, including the use of tear gas grenades by the French and a gas intended to cause violent fits of sneezing created by the Germans. The first recorded use of poison gas with lethal intent was recorded at the battle of Ypres in 1915, when the German military fired artillery shells containing chlorine gas into the French lines. French troops mistook this gas as a smokescreen and proceeded to man their stations, resulting in a huge number of soldiers dying of suffocation. This attack provided the Allied Powers with justification to begin the manufacture of gas weapons of their own. This race to produce new, more potent poison gases lead to the development of mustard gas and phosgene, both of which were colorless and induced painful blisters both internally and externally and, if left untreated, lead to internal bleeding and organ failure. In total World War I saw 1,250,000 casualties caused by poison gas, 91,000 of which lead to fatalities.